2 million turned out for Diablo III open beta

Plus 10 million sign-ups for Call of Duty Elite

In a call discussing Activision Blizzard's recent quarterly earnings, Activision Publishing president Mike Morhaime announced that over 2 million players took part in Diablo III's "stress test" open beta last month.

The company previously revealed that the servers peaked at 300,000 simultaneous users in the weekend test, during which many players saw periodic problems logging in. In a recent pre-launch FAQ for the game, the company warned that players may see login delays of up to 40 seconds during the game's May 15 launch, as it adjusts the login rate to maintain stability.

Activision Blizzard also revealed some mind-boggling statistics for the record-breaking Call of Duty franchise. Over 10 million people are now signed up for its premium Call of Duty Elite service (up 40 percent since the end of January), including 2 million annual members (up 33 percent since January). Those players have logged over 1.6 billion hours playing Modern Warfare 3, and the franchise as a whole currently sees 40 million active players each month.

Other stats from Activision Blizzard's earnings call:

Skylander: Spyro's Adventure has now sold over 30 million toys over its lifetime.

World of Warcraft has stabilized at 10.2 million subscribers, equal to the number reported last quarter but down from 11 million reported a year ago.

1.2 million players have signed up for a World of Warcraft annual pass and taken part in the Mists of Pandaria beta.

The company recorded $1.17 billion in revenues, down from $1.45 billion from the year before, but beating the expectations of both analysts and the company itself.

13 Reader Comments

I'm glad to hear that the Blizzard side of the company is doing well. I've enjoyed playing their games since the original Diablo and I respect their development and design teams more than any other non-indie developer/publisher I can name. In my personal opinion, they've earned it.

I will refrain from passing judgment on the Activision side of things.

"World of Warcraft has stabilized at 10.2 million subscribers, equal to the number reported last quarter but down from 11 million reported a year ago"

I find that incredibly hard to believe. That they maintained exactly 10.2 million from Q4 2011 to the end of Q1 2012. Even if it's just estimated (rounded up/down for simplicity)..... I find this difficult to believe.

Something doesn't sound right about this because I know 4.3 was not a well-received release, and has not been in high favor. Even a lot of VERY hardcore WoW players that I know have cancelled their subs. Something just doesn't sound right....

I had 2 friends that tried logging into the Open Beta weekend on Saturday, and when they got the "error 37" a few times, didn't bother to keep trying. I think more than 2 million people will be trying to sign in on the 15th.

"World of Warcraft has stabilized at 10.2 million subscribers, equal to the number reported last quarter but down from 11 million reported a year ago"

I find that incredibly hard to believe. That they maintained exactly 10.2 million from Q4 2011 to the end of Q1 2012. Even if it's just estimated (rounded up/down for simplicity)..... I find this difficult to believe.

Something doesn't sound right about this because I know 4.3 was not a well-received release, and has not been in high favor. Even a lot of VERY hardcore WoW players that I know have cancelled their subs. Something just doesn't sound right....

WoW offered a deal that in return for a year of subscription, you get D3 for free day one. If you were buying D3 for sure, then you basically got nearly half a year of WoW for free, a very reasonable deal. I imagine they are hoping it will bridge people to MoP and avoid D3 cannibalizing their own sales. So their subscription numbers are probably slightly inflated when compared to their active players.

"World of Warcraft has stabilized at 10.2 million subscribers, equal to the number reported last quarter but down from 11 million reported a year ago"

I find that incredibly hard to believe. That they maintained exactly 10.2 million from Q4 2011 to the end of Q1 2012. Even if it's just estimated (rounded up/down for simplicity)..... I find this difficult to believe.

Something doesn't sound right about this because I know 4.3 was not a well-received release, and has not been in high favor. Even a lot of VERY hardcore WoW players that I know have cancelled their subs. Something just doesn't sound right....

The Annual Pass plus the return of more casual dungeons in 4.3 (and raids, thanks for LFR) mean that a lot of people either didn't leave or returned.

The numbers are as believable as any numbers Blizzard have given for subscribers over the years.

I'm glad to hear that the Blizzard side of the company is doing well. I've enjoyed playing their games since the original Diablo and I respect their development and design teams more than any other non-indie developer/publisher I can name. In my personal opinion, they've earned it.

I will refrain from passing judgment on the Activision side of things.

The development teams are not the same. The Blizzard North team we more likely who you are fans of

I had 2 friends that tried logging into the Open Beta weekend on Saturday, and when they got the "error 37" a few times, didn't bother to keep trying. I think more than 2 million people will be trying to sign in on the 15th.

I had a few problems logging in at first and then sporadically during the weekend. The most nagging one was that any time I tried multiplayer I got sent to the login screen after a few minutes, so I can't say I really explored that side of the game.

All in all, I don't feel Diablo 3 is particularly innovative, though I really haven't played Diablo 2 in years so my memories may be skewed. Still, the open beta really was great fun. I'm probably buying the game, even if only for some solo runs to pass the time.

We had a great time w/the D3 beta, altho there were definitely some times where it wouldn't let us in. I never used the multi-player option so can't comment on that. Single player worked great. I still have reservations about the complete lack of fast switching abilities, but we'll see. My wife's birthday is Monday and she is getting D3 for her bday.

I played through the single-player beta. It was kinda fun (never played D1 or D2). Couldn't get in initially and got kicked off a couple times because the servers went silent. Stupid always-on internet connection requirement. Might get it after they drop the price, whenever that happens.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.